Third baseman Travis Shaw slugged the first two home runs of his major league career and had four RBIs as the Boston Red Sox overcame another shaky start from Joe Kelly in an 11-7 win over the Tampa...

Obama's debt: His real legacy is coming

EDITORIAL

Just after President Obama took office in 2009, he pledged to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term. “I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay, and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control,” he said.

It was a lie. Obama never cut the deficit in half, and his budgets routinely projected huge increases in the federal debt in the out years. This week the Congressional Budget Office projected that the national debt would hit 78 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2024 and 100 percent by 2039. The Christian Science Monitor’s story on the CBO report explained the situation well: “Americans, your government is getting larger, and the debt you shoulder as taxpayers is going up.”

Federal spending will hit 26 percent of GDP by 2039. Its historical average since the 1960s is 20.5 percent.

This is President Obama’s real legacy: A gigantic expansion in the size and scope of the federal government for the purpose of winning office, with the costs passed to your children and grandchildren. If only someone had warned that this would happen. Oh, wait....